The Beauty, the Beast, and the Unnecessary Other
by Eleutheria Wolf
Summary: A prompt by MaxAnyaElphie. Severus pulls a trick just as neatly as his rival, tricking Lily into a date on Valentine's Day. Lily is less than appreciative. SeverusXLily


Snape, as a sixth year, takes polyjuice potion, enough to last for an entire night... a night James Potter was going to take Lily into Hogsmeade for a rather against-the-rules Valentine's day evening. He gets the night of his dreams (innocent, this is rated T or under!) with the lovely Lily, but returns to his true form mid-kiss. A mad, Beauty-and-the-Beast like evening!

_12:00pm, Midnight, February 14th, 1977_

Lily was going to hate him for the rest of their natural lives.

And looking into her beautiful, horrified emerald eyes... Severus Snape couldn't bring himself to regret it.

Perhaps he had a bit of explaining to do.

HPHPHPHP

_2:00pm, February 14th , 1977_

_10 Hours Ago_

Severus Snape regarded the potions vial in his hand with no small amount of trepidation, eying the swirling black sludge within with a look that mixed longing and utter loathing.

Held in his hand was the result of a month's worth of delicate and time-consuming brewing, not to mention a scheme several months in the making. The Polyjuice Potion, already spiked with the hair of none other than James Potter (who was currently thoroughly incarcerated in a broom closest on the third floor), and made from ingredients bought himself or filched from Professor Slughorn's private cabinets, bubbled rather innocently beneath the Slytherin sixth year's sour gaze, as if unaware that its very existence was provoking a crisis of faith in its maker. On one hand, used carefully, this potion could give him something he had desired since before he had even received his Hogwarts letter: an honest-to-Merlin _date_ with Lily Evans, where she could forget his greasy appearance, and he could forget everything else. On the other...

On the other, if Lily discovered this plot, she would never speak to him ever again. And that hurt more than anything else. She may have had many other friends, but Severus had no one but her. His self-preservation cried out for him to throw the vial down, stop being such a Gryffindor, and be content with what little he had. But it was his pride, and his longing, that gave him the courage to uncork the vial, wrinkle his nose once more in disgust, and toss the entire inky contents down his throat.

Instantly, Severus doubled over with a barely-swallowed cry, clenching his arms around his stomach as he felt the potion begin to _change_ him, inside and out. The greasy Slytherin stumbled a few steps into the wall, and slid down it to rest on the floor of his laboratory (really nothing more than a cauldron and a few supplies in a long-abandoned classroom), grimacing as he rode out the strange twisting in his gut.

Three minutes later, James Potter rose from the floor of the dusty classroom, a wicked smirk on his face. Pivoting swiftly to face the mirror he had affixed to the wall in preparation for just such a need, Severus grinned wickedly, the wholly Slytherin smirk looking oddly natural on the Gryffindor's stolen face, then altered his robes so that they fit James Potter's taller and more robust body. As a final touch, he altered the Slytherin badge to the red and gold of Gryffindor (though he winced as he did so), and after tidying up the lab a final time, he set out, grinning like a look and crushing the part of him that was still shouting that this was a_ really bad idea_.

(In hindsight, he probably shouldn't have done that.)

HPHPHPHP

_5:00pm, February 14__th__ , 1977_

_Seven Hours Until Midnight_

Lily Evans was worried, skeptical, and generally unamused. But curiosity was enough to hold her where she stood as James Potter, looking as arrogant as ever, strutted down the staircase to meet her, a smarmy smirk on his face. For some reason the expression seemed familiar, but Lily was too busy trying to puzzle out Potter's motives for asking her on a date to wonder exactly why.

(A bad idea, really.)

"Ready to go, Lily?" James said with grin, self-satisfaction practically oozing from his pores. Lily snorted and rolled her eyes, but nonetheless put her hand on the offered forearm, almost touched by the cheesy (yet strangely endearing) action.

"Let's just go, James," she said, eager to get this night over with, and not bothering to hide it in her posture. But if she hadn't looked at her watch just then, so ready to be done with all this, she might have seen the flash of hurt in those brown eyes. But by the time she looked back, the snarky grin was back, as though that glimpse of something else had never been

"Aw, don't be like that, Lily!" James mock-whined, a mischievious glint in his eyes "Who knows, you might even have fun!" Lily rolled her eyes, restraining herself from punching the snarky bastard or something equally enjoyable to think about.

"Perish the thought," she muttered, as the two set out for the path down to Hogsmeade, wrapping her cloak more tightly around her as she prepared for a long and trying night.

HPHPHPHP

_6:00pm, February 14__th__ , 1977_

_Six Hours Until Midnight_

"C'mon, Lily! This place is fantastic, I promise." Lily snorted skeptically, following after the smirking sixth year, but even she had to abmit the little back-street family-restaurant, boasting the name 'Iverson's International Finest: Cuisine from Around the Magical World,' looked more than a little facsinating. She hadn't thought that James would know about little places like this. It didn't seem like his kind of thing. But Lily was the first to admit that she really knew very little about James Potter, aside from that he was a first-class sanctimonious prat. Maybe he was that kind of person, that would take the backroads just to look for hidden little shops like this. Maybe?

But the argument sound false to her.

And in the end? The food really was fantastic.

HPHPHPHP

_7:30pm, February 14__th__ , 1977_

_Four and a Half Hours Until Midnight_

"James, stop this! Where are you taking me?"

"No, don't open your eyes yet...! Okay...ready?"

"James, take your hands off of my eyes!"

"But are you ready?"

"Yes! Ready!"

"Tada!"

"It...it's beautiful! How? I didn't think you even knew my favorite gemstone..."

"Sapphire, of course. And I've been doing some work during the summer and stuff, saving up some money. I figured this was one of the better ways to spend it, right?"

"It's so beautiful... Are you sure you're really James Potter? The James I know wouldn't be so chivalrous!"

"O-of course!"

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_9:00pm, February 14__th__ , 1977_

_Three Hours Until Midnight_

"Ah...Lily! I don't think I...hah...can dance any...hah...longer...so...hah...tired"

"Are you suuuure, James? Didn't you once tell Black that you could always party all night long?"

"It seems I was...hah... win...hah...torment me no...hah...longer."

"Oh, come on, you fuddyduddy! Dance!"

"Just kill me now..."

"Oh, it's not that bad...!"

HPHPHPHP

_11:00pm, February 14__th__ , 1977_

_One Hour Until Midnight_

"Oh...Look at the fireworks! They're so strange...but beautiful."

"Strange? Oh, the picture, you mean. Magical fireworks are pretty different than muggle ones."

"How would you know?"

"I-I mean...at least, that's what I've heard."

HPHPHPHP

_12:58pm, February 14__th__ , 1977_

_Two Minutes Until Midnight_

As she and James walked back up the castle, Lily felt like she was floating above the rest of the world, with James's hand tucked in her own, warm and solid, keeping her from floating away entirely. This was one of the most beautiful thing to ever happen to her, and yet, it didn't feel real, didn't feel complete. Then James pulled her to a halt just outside the castle, and she shook herself just a little more awake, for the night was almost, but not quite, complete.

"Lily... I-I just wanted to say... this has been the best-," James stuttered, his face young and a little lost as he tried to express what Lily had felt all along. She silenced him with a single finger, laid across his lips, to hush his nonsense and get it over with already.

"Kiss me, you fool," Lily whispered into the night, and with that, they leaned forward together, and their lips met. Heaven danced behind Lily's closed eyes. This night could get no better.

And then, as they kissed, she felt something beneath her hands linked behind James's head, a rippling in his skin, almost. His shoulders grew slighter, less broad and muscular, and his arms clasped around her felt more skeletal and wiry. His hair seemed to grow and lengthen out over her clasped hands, and his lips themselves seemed to change on hers. At first, she ignored it as the vertigo from having found someone she now felt sure she could love and spend her life with. But then it went on and grew strong, and she could ignore no more. Lily drew back from the kiss and opened her eyes.

Severus Snape watched her with dark and wary eyes, where not a minute ago James had looked on her with love. Lily stared, horrified and dazed. She didn't know what to do. So she did the first thing that came to mind.

She slapped him.

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_12:00pm, Midnight, February 14th, 1977_

Lily looked horrified. Severus tried not to wince or rub his sore cheek, where Lily's open hand had slapped him like a bolt of lightning. He could only pray that when all was said and done, Lily wouldn't hate him, or worse. He didn't think he could stand the icy ambivelance she gave all the other Slytherins that she truly detested. He would die, for sure.

"Lily, it's not-" he pleaded, but her voice, shaking with control and rage, stopped him.

"Severus Snape, you have approximately three seconds to explain this to me, and if I do not like your answer, you will sorely regret it," she hissed, tears and anger and utter betrayal in her eyes. Snape actually did wince, then. Oh, Merlin, she really did hate him.

"I..." he trailed off, not certain where to begin. Then suddenly, he said, very softly and quickly, "Lily, if I had asked you out this morning, would you have said yes?" She blinked.

"What? Sev, what are you-" she stammered, but he would not let her.

"No, you would not have. But you said yes to James Potter. If only to mock him. I just..." he rushed on, "I wanted the chance to be with you." When he looked up, his eyes, he knew, were full of the vulnerability that only she could bring out in him. "Even if it was as someone else," he finished softly. He had laid his soul bare. It was her turn now.

HPHPHPHP

Lily felt her rage soften, but not enough to stop what she did next. Gently, carefully, she slipped her hand to encircle Severus's neck, then squeezed softly, not choking him, just making him aware of the threat it her words.

"Severus," she said, looking into his wide, frightened, and confused eyes, "I am going to tell you this once, and only once. If you ever do that to me again, I will wring your neck in front of the whole school, detention be damned. Because next time-" and the words made her heart leap, as she leaned in to place a chaste kiss on his lips, "Next time, I want to see your face."

She left him there, eyes wide, face open, and hope slowly growing in his heart, and walked into the warmth of Hogwarts. Shouting drew her attention, as James Potter – the real James Potter, a good-for-nothing lowlife – scrambled down the stairs and came to face her.

"Lily, I'm so sorry – trapped in a closet – didn't make it – just woke – Lily?" Lily resisted the urge to roll her eyes, and walked past the panting James Potter, who looked highly confused as to why she wasn't fiery angry. But she was only frustrated, fed-up, and tired.

"Go to hell, James Potter," she said, as she walked away, feeling a brief flame of satisfaction at his no doubt confused and broken-hearted expression. After all.

She'd found someone much better.


End file.
